These Are The 10 Smartest Cities In Texas

So finding a city with an intelligent population makes sense for both companies and employees. That’s where Zippia comes in; to help you identify those places in Texas that might have skipped a grade…or two.

You may be wondering how does one determine how intelligent a town really is?

Well we went to the source of all things demographic data – the census – to figure out what criteria about a place would identify it is a smart cookie.

We set upon the percentage of people with at least a high school degree, the number of public and private schools per capita, and the ratio of libraries to bar for the 157 largest cities in Texas with data. We then crunched the numbers and were left with this set of the brightest cities in Texas:

1. Katy
2. Tomball
3. Sugar Land
4. Boerne
5. Humble
6. Fredericksburg
7. Kerrville
8. Texarkana
9. Orange
10. Nederland

Read on to see why these places got into a four-year college or skip to the end to see a full chart of all the places in our analysis

How we determined the smartest places in the Lone Star State

Before we could dive into the potential IQs of various places in Texas, we needed to know which places to look at in the first place. We settled upon any place with over 10,000 people and data available for every criteria.

This left us with 158 places in Texas.

We then looked at the following criteria to determine the cream from the crop when it comes to smarts:

Our data came from AreaVibes‘ census data with a little help from our friends at Yelp as well.

We thought this criteria was representative of the current state of smarts with the potential for a place to improve the education levels of the next generation. And it’s not like we are setting the education bar incredibly high — 80% of students graduate from high school nowadays.

In order to determine the smartest, we ranked all the cities for each criteria from one to 157 with one being the “smartest” in any category.

We took the average rank across all criteria, with the place posting the highest overall score being given the diploma for “Smartest City In Texas”.

If your city or town isn’t among the top 10, jump down to the bottom of the post to see a detailed chart. Otherwise, learn more about how the top ten cities achieved their potential.

1. Katy

Population: 14,363
People without a college degree: 17.5%

Katy takes the diploma as the smartest city in Texas.

The town of over 14,000 residents is home to 45 public schools and 9 private schools. The kids here have access to a great education. No wonder they are so smart.

With so many educational institutions Katy ranked 1st for both public and private school ratios and so is our best hope for a bright future in Texas.

2. Tomball

Population: 10,732
People with at least a high school degree: 18.6%

Tomball residents are right up there with those in Katy as some of the brightest men and women in Texas. With a population of just over 10,000 and two public libraries to access this little town is doing big things.

For such a small town 15 public schools is quite a feat. The IQs here must be off the charts.

3. Sugar Land

Population: 79,475
People with at least a high school degree: 9%

The largest city to make out Ten Smartest list, Sugar Land gets the bronze for coming in third place. With over 80 bars in the city limits Sugar Land is a lively place to be. But don’t worry there are plenty of schools to choose from as there are over 55 in the area.

Despite having the least of number fo residents with a high school degree Sugar Land has plenty of potential.

4. Boerne

Population: 10,618
People with at least a high school degree: 13.7%

With all around great numbers Boerne is a bright little bulb in the Lone Star state. With a population just over 10,000 and 8 public schools to choose from its the obvious choice for 4th place. Don’t worry the people around town aren’t boring either there are almost 20 bars where you can have an intelligent discussion on today’s hot topics.

5. Humble

Population: 15,155
People with at least a high school degree: 25.4%

It turns out Humble doesn’t have to be so humble after all. This town of over 15,000 residents has the highest concentration of high school graduates in our top ten list coming in at right around 25%. That’s a lot of high school graduations.

With 28 schools to choose from in the area Humble has plenty of opportunity to turn out some smart cookies.

6. Fredericksburg

Population: 10,556
People with at least a high school degree: 14.9%

With a small population of just over 10,000 and a competitive high school diploma rate Frederiskburg made our list with ease. It ranked 4th overall for the ratio of private schools per person in the state.

The kids here are getting a world class education to be sure.

7. Kerrville

Population: 22,344
People with at least a high school degree: 19.5%

Residents of Kerrville boast a relatively high concentration of schools per child. Even for a town of 22,000 residents it still makes time to fund public education.

What do you know? Kerrville is a pretty cool place where you can have some intelligent conversations with intelligent people.

8. Texarkana

Population: 36,548
People with at least a high school degree: 17%

It might sound like it doesn’t belong in an article about Texas but Texarkana is in fact the 8th smartest city in the state. With 23 public schools and 5 different private schools to choose from the little city has options to choose from.

9. Orange

Population: 18,800
People with at least a high school degree: 19.5%

With a population of almost 19,000 people the city of Orange would be an easy place to get lost in. Luckily the residents here are pretty studious in their free time. They have plenty of it too since there are only 6 bars in the city limits to wet your whistle.

But don’t worry just look around and you’ll find some real smarties to study with.

10. Nederland

Population: 17,482
People with at least a high school degree: 10.6%

Rounding out our list of the smartest places to be in Texas is the town of Nederland. With a fairly large population and low rate of diploma holders Nederland ranked last but it was a close call. In a town with almost as many bars as there are schools the kids here might be a little distracted.

Not to worry though they still check out as smarter than the next 147 towns below.

Author

John McLean